Press release

«scream & shake»
Monica Bonvicini
exhibition June 3 – September 2, 2001
curator : Lionel Bovier

Le Magasin is hosting what is the artist’s biggest exhibition so far and also the first presentation of her work in France. It will be shown at Kunst-Werke, Berlin, and at P.S.1, New York, in 2002.

The work of Monica Bonvicini focuses on the inscription of the body in architecture, cinema and in the broader cultural field. Understood not only as representations but also as systems for the production of social values, identity and gender, buildings, films and even exhibitions, are examined and deconstructed here as ideological forms.

The exhibition brings together ten major projects from the last five years, reflecting the diversity of media and materials used by the artist (installation, video, sculpture, drawing, etc.).

Conceived as an “architectural” itinerary with contrasting areas of silence and noise, violence and calm, the presentation immediately engages visitors in a physical relation with its contents as they come to a artificial storm blown up by powerful fans, A Violent, Tropical, Cyclonic Piece of Art Having Wind Speeds of or in Excess of 75 Miles per Hour (1998).

Then come monumental installations, occupying each its own room in the Magasin Galleries: I Believe in the Skin of Things as in that of Women (1999), a temporary, partially destroyed space on whose walls are inscribed quotations from Zaha Hadid, Beatriz Colomina and Adolf Loos, as well as architecture caricatures; Destroy She Said (1998), a double projection in a space “under construction” of excerpts from films clearly showing the mechanics of the inscription and “framing” of women’s bodies in an architectural space; and Turning Walls (2001), a work made using the various kinds of barriers that serve to separate private from public space.

The visit is punctuated by works such as Bedtimesquare (1996) - a “sculpture/bed” evoking and transforming the minimalist aesthetic into an inexpensive everyday object for the private sphere -, by What Does Your Wife /Girlfriend Think of Your Rough and Dry Hands? (1999-2001) - questionnaries to construction site workers in Italy, Germany, England and France -, Hausfrau Swinging (1997), and a set of drawings on architect’s paper from 1996.

The visit ends in La Rue (the “Street”, main central space under a glass-roof) with the presentation of other projects concerned with architecture, 7h30 (1999/2001) and All Art Has Been Built (1999).

Most of the works have been recreated and adapted specially for this exhibition.

In partnership with the Groupe Degaud.

Monica Bonvicini
Born in Italy in 1965, Bonvicini studied in Berlin (1986-1990) and at the California Institute for the Arts (CalArts) in Los Angeles (1991-1992). She now divides her time between those two cities.

Exhibition checklist

Places of ID, 1996
Drawings on tracy paper, ink, framed
Courtesy Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin

Hausfrau Swinging, 1997
Sheetrock panels, wood, color video on monitor
Private collections
Courtesy Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin
Courtesy Galleria Emi Fontana, Milan

Destroy She Said, 1998
Videoinstallation: 2 drywall screens, wood, white paint, 2 color videos
Castello di Rivoli, Rivoli
Courtesy Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin
Courtesy Galleria Emi Fontana, Milan

A Violent, Tropical, Cyclonic Piece of Art Having Wind Speeds or in Excess of 75 Miles per Hour, 1998
Drywall panels, aluminum studs, white paint, 2 axial fans
Collection Paul Maenz, Neues Museum Weimar
Courtesy Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin

What Does Your Wife/ Girlfriend Think of Your Rough and Dry Hands?, 1999
Questionnaries to construction workers in German, English, Italian and French (150), framed
Courtesy Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin

7h30, 1999
Limestone bricks, mortar
Exercise structure by construction school, realized by local students
Courtesy Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin

I Believe in the Skin of Things as in that of Women, 1999
Drywall panels, aluminium studs, pencil, wood, Circa 700 x 400 cm
Courtesy Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin
Courtesy Galleria Emi Fontana, Milan
Courtesy Galerie Krobath Wimmer, Vienne
Courtesy Anton Kern Gallery, New York

All Art Has Been Built, 1999
C-print on PVC, 600 x 2800 cm
Courtesy Galleria Civica d’Arte Modern, Torino

Bedtimesquare, 1999
Wood, ceramic tiles, gravel tils, drywall panels, air mattress
Castello di Rivoli, Rivoli
Courtesy Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin
Courtesy Galleria Emi Fontana, Milan

Turning Walls, 2001
Wooden, metal and plastic fencing, hedge
Courtesy Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin
Courtesy Anton Kern Gallery, New York